Texas, Houston leaders differ on gun control proposals

By James Pinkerton |
January 16, 2013
| Updated: January 17, 2013 11:32am

"As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children."

— Gov. Rick Perry of Texas

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"I have no illusions about what we're up against or how hard the task is in front of us. ... We should do as much as we can, as quickly as we can. And we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

— Vice President Joe Biden.

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"I am committed to ensuring that the Senate will consider legislation that addresses gun violence and other aspects of violence in our society early this year."

— Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"Nothing the president is proposing would have stopped the massacre at Sandy Hook. ... Rather than sweeping measures that make it harder for responsible, law-abiding citizens to purchase firearms, we should focus on the root causes of gun violence and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill."

— Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

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"There's an extraordinary disconnect between what the American public wants — including gun owners and NRA members — and what our elected officials are doing about it."

— Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

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"There's a slow-motion Sandy Hook going on in every community in America.... The center of the gun debate should not be Washington. It should be the streets of America, where ...there's a much deeper consensus than there is in the halls of Congress."

— Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.

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"President Obama's series of gun control measures amount to an executive power grab that may please his political base but will not solve the problems at hand."

— Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus

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"We know we're not going to eliminate all gun violence, but certainly diminish the possibility of having another Newtown. ... I believe all the major law enforcement organizations will support the administration. So this is a good day."

— New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

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"I truly believe that the will of the people makes a difference, and I'm calling on everyone to have the courage to stand up and help us make that difference. We should never again visit a tragedy such as we had in Newtown, Conn. It's time for us to make a change."

— E. Patricia Llodra, first selectwoman of Newtown, Conn.

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"We must take action. If you think that this cannot happen to you, and that you will never be touched by gun violence, you are fooling yourself."

— Sandy Phillips, mother of Jessica Ghawi, one of the 12 people killed last July at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

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"My son is still partially paralyzed. You don't think that when I see him, how I know his life was changed forever? Or not to have a husband?"

— Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., whose husband was killed and son was wounded in a 1993 mass shooting on a train.

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Harris County’s top law enforcement officials and Houston’s mayor expressed support for President Barack Obama’s gun control proposals, particularly those that would outlaw military-style assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Other elected officials in Texas and members of Texas’ congressional delegation rejected the proposals as an attack on the constitutional right to bear arms and state’s rights, while insisting they would not have prevented the Connecticut school massacre last month.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst called Obama’s gun proposal the latest assault by the federal government on the right of states to govern themselves.

“The examples are more and more outrageous,” Dewhurst said in a statement. “I have always felt that law-abiding Americans deserve protection of their Second Amendment rights. As lieutenant governor, I will continue to preserve our Second Amendment rights and defend our state from further attacks by Washington. Here in Texas, we believe that government exists to empower people — not rule over them.”

‘Pray for our children’

Gov. Rick Perry recommended prayer rather than changes in gun laws to combat violence in society.

“There is evil prowling in the world — it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds,” Perry said in a statement issued after the president’s Washington, D.C., news conference announcing the proposals. “As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.”

Perry said few of the recommendations put forth by Vice President Joe Biden’s committee on violence had anything to do with what happened in Newtown.

“In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally,” the governor said. “The Second Amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president.”

“We arrest very few deer hunters in this city … the people we arrest with assault rifles are predominantly gang members, drug dealers that have gotten these guns because of various loopholes,” McClelland said. “And they didn’t steal these guns; they paid for them.”

McClelland supports the position of the Major Cities Chief Police Association, whose members advocate a return to the Clinton-era assault rifle ban, limited-capacity magazines and expanded background checks for gun buyers.

Garcia said he would like to see a “reasonable and practical solution” to the proliferation of assault weapons that would not impede a citizen’s right to own a gun.

“As for military-style assault weapons, armor-piercing bullets and similar items, I don’t want that type of weaponry on the streets of Harris County,” Garcia said. “We are seeing where cartels got firearms through a legal process.”

Mayor Annise Parker, herself a gun owner, favors limiting the sale of assault rifles but acknowledged it will be a tough sell in Texas.

“I believe the federal government ought to consider that, but it’s not going to happen down here,” Parker said.

City Councilman and former Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford said he supports the proposals to require background checks on all gun sales and to increase penalties for gun trafficking but said he opposes bans on assault weapons and ammunition clips larger than 10 rounds, in part because those proposals miss the point. “I don’t see how banning any particular type of weapon is going to reduce what individuals choose to do with their weapon,” he said.